Lois Lerner fears for her life if she testifies at Wednesday’s oversight hearing

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Lois Lerner fears for her life if she testifies openly before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Wednesday, according to her attorney.

House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa announced Sunday that Lerner will testify at Wednesday’s hearing, but Lerner’s attorney Bill Taylor said that Lerner will seek to continue invoking her Fifth Amendment rights and will also seek a one-week delay of her testimony.

Oversight members are reportedly open to granting Lerner a one-week delay if she petitions for one in person at Wednesday’s hearing. The delay would allow Lerner’s lawyers to continue negotiating for immunity, which they have been doing since at least September.

“I advised the staff that calling Ms. Lerner knowing that she will assert her rights was not only improper but dangerous. Ms. Lerner has been the subject of numerous threats on her life and safety, and on the life and safety of her family. I left with the staff recent evidence of those threats,” said Taylor in a letter to Issa.

But Oversight previously determined that Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment rights when she made a statement attesting to her innocence at a May 2013 hearing.

Republican Reps. Jim Jordan and Jason Chaffetz, both Oversight members, said recently that they were considering holding Lerner in contempt of Congress if she does not testify.

Issa said on the subject, ”We want her to come back and answer questions. We’ll see on contempt.”

The hearing was a farce - Lerner took the fifth again on every question, so Issa adjourned the hearing. Cummings, the ranking member, tried to ask a procedural question - since her attorneys had done a bargain to give her answered in a proffered document, could they not accept the proffer? Issa cut off Cummings' mike and walked out on him.

I was just talking to a VERY conservative Republican friend, on the Hill, who said that Issa does "not always manage the oversight committee well", and was a little shocked at his behavior this morning since he and Cummings have always gotten along pretty well. I sure wouldn't invite them to the same cocktail party after today.

"Today, [the American voter] chooses his rulers as he buys bootleg whiskey, never knowing precisely what he is getting, only certain that it is not what it pretends to be." - H.L. Mencken

The hearing was a farce - Lerner took the fifth again on every question, so Issa adjourned the hearing. Cummings, the ranking member, tried to ask a procedural question - since her attorneys had done a bargain to give her answered in a proffered document, could they not accept the proffer? Issa cut off Cummings' mike and walked out on him.

I was just talking to a VERY conservative Republican friend, on the Hill, who said that Issa does "not always manage the oversight committee well", and was a little shocked at his behavior this morning since he and Cummings have always gotten along pretty well. I sure wouldn't invite them to the same cocktail party after today.

Yes yes of course, let's transfer blame to Issa and remove the spotlight from the liberal who refuses to obey the law and testify about breaking the law, how Progressive of you.

The difference between pigs and people is that when they tell you you're cured it isn't a good thing.

Yes yes of course, let's transfer blame to Issa and remove the spotlight from the liberal who refuses to obey the law and testify about breaking the law, how Progressive of you.

You didn't see it, did you? I have no issue with Issa ending the hearing - he wasn't getting any answers from Lerner. But he totally ignored a procedural question and tried to cut it off by cutting the mikes. That was a colleague he was steamrolling, not the non-cooperative witness.

"Today, [the American voter] chooses his rulers as he buys bootleg whiskey, never knowing precisely what he is getting, only certain that it is not what it pretends to be." - H.L. Mencken

You didn't see it, did you? I have no issue with Issa ending the hearing - he wasn't getting any answers from Lerner. But he totally ignored a procedural question and tried to cut it off by cutting the mikes. That was a colleague he was steamrolling, not the non-cooperative witness.

I see, Elijah's total lack of self control is Issa's fault also.

The difference between pigs and people is that when they tell you you're cured it isn't a good thing.